CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEACH ACCORDING TO 



RACES 



R. H. PRICE 



All cultivated fruits comprising a large number of varieties, are diffi- 

 cult to classify. This is true because of the well known fact that the tend- 

 ency to vary is inherent. Under cultivation in widely different soils and 

 climates, varieties with more or less variation are produced. 



Any system of classification that is useful to the grower is of import- 

 ance and is worth study. While however, some knowledge of a classifica- 

 tion is necessary to the successful growing of a fruit over a wide area, and 

 in different climates, a good system of classification is of very great impor- 

 tance to humanity. In a large measure I think this can be claimed for the 

 classification of the peach herein outlined. Of course other systems of 

 more or less value in distinguishing varieties have been devised and strange 

 to say have held with pomologists till within the past few years. The 

 system based upon the presence or absence of glands on the foliage ena- 

 bles one to distinguish a few varieties growing in the nursery; but some varie- 

 ties bear different glands upon the same tree. Other points have value 

 such as color of flesh, adherence or non-adherence of flesh to pits and size 

 of bloom. All these points help to distinguish varieties but none of them 

 has any phylogenetic importance. They have but little to do in ena- 

 bling us to trace the relationship of varieties, the origin of varieties and the 

 adaptability or non -adaptability of varieties to different thermal lines. Hence 

 these systems appeal but little to the practical grower, or to the scientific 

 horticulturist. 



It is also true that an objection has been raised against the present 

 system of classification in that all varieties could not be assigned to one or 

 another of the five races. I might ask if this has been done with all the 

 breeds (races) of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, where mixing and cross- 

 ing have been carried on ad libitum for many years. If each animal can- 

 not be assigned to one or the other of the various breeds owing to the mix- 

 ture of different breeds in it, would any one venture the assertion that there 

 are no true breeds of stock ? 



In regard to peaches, however, it might be stated that if one has not 

 studied the peach as it approaches its limit of successful culture near the 

 tropics where many varieties, that are successful a thousand miles further 

 north or on higher altitudes, utterly refuse to bear at all, the importance of 

 this classification will be more difficult to appreciate at first. 



